Moon gazing 10/6/2025 月見

Mid autumn full moon or “Chushu-no-meigetsu 中秋の名月” happened this year (2025) on October 6. As usual, to celebrate, I made “moon gazing” mochi rice balls “Tsukimi-dango 月見団子”. In addition, I re-discoved that we had a rectangular plate that was decorated with hand-drawn “Kikyo 桔梗” flowers (shown in the picture below). Kikyo* is traditionally associated with “Tsuki-mi” because its buds are round like the moon and it’s blue flowers are star shaped. So this was the perfect plate on which  to serve the “Tsukimi-dango”. By the way, the autumn full moon this year was spectacular. It was a super moon.(This seasonal moon is called the Hunter’s moon in U.S.). It was big and bright even when in mid sky. Unfortunately, it was also a late riser this year not reaching its Zenith in the mid sky until 3AM.

*I learned that the English name for this flower which is balloon flower or “Platycodon”

As usual, we warmed up these dango in the microwave oven and served it with the traditional “mitarashi sauce” as a dessert.

This year, we also celebrated using the special sake glasses we got from Kitaichi Glass 北一グラス in Otaru 小樽, Japan. These may not be meant for drinking cold sake but for us they are perfect. As you can see they are nice deep blue with the traditional Japanese symbols for the moon; rabbits, falling stars and cherry blossom motifs on the sides.

The other side has a round transparent moon-like window from which you can see the rabbits with the shooting star on the other side of the glass. 

And rabbits with cherry blossoms.

And in the bottom of the glass you can see the rabbits running aroung the “moon”. (Too cute) 

While folks in the west typically refer to the figure seen in the moon as the  “man-in-the moon” according to Japanese folklore the figure is referred to as a rabbit pounding mochi. Therefore, rabbits are the symbol associated with the moon. So we thought it was entirely appropriate to use these glasses depicting rabbits for the moon gazing occasion.